Hawailan guitar



1929- w. A.'GREENFIELD I 95 HAWAIIAN GUITAR Filed March so, 1927Patented Oct. 29, 1929 UNITED STATES A NT, OFFICE WILLIAM A.GREENFIEILD, or rennonron, ALBERTA, CANADA i nAwAIIANeUf'rAnAppIic-ation filed March 30,1927, Serial No. 179,427, and iii CanadaMarch 23, 1927.

The Hawaiian guitar is a stringed instrupeculiar to that instrument. Tomany ears ment which heretofore has been constructed they are harsh andunmusical, and are conchiefly along the lines of the Spanish guitarsidered crude. They suggest or demonstrate having a hollow body with anopening in the primitive notions of musical sounds, being soundingboardand having along and slender wildand bizarre to the cultivatedear.And neck, the top surface'of the neck havinga finyet the Hawaiian guitaris capable of producger boa rd with frets thereon, the six tonal ingmusical effects of so distinct a type, with strings passing over thefinger-board, over a its peculiar suggestiveness of the wild and nut atthe free endof'the neo'k,'and extending primitive, and with itsronounced capacity thence to tuning pegs or other devices in the forarousing emotions, t at'it has acquired a head. The Hawaiian guitar hasseveral chardistinct status among instruments of its genact'eristicdepartures from the ordinary guian type and has become very popular inthis tar. One isthat frets as such are omitted. In country; Itspopularity is rapidly spreading place of frets, markers are employed onwhat through European countries.

wouldordinarily be termed a finger board There are certain objections ordeficiencies 65 or fret board, these markers being usually to andin, theHawaiian guitar of the ordiinlays an flush with the top surface of thenary type and its musical results, both with board' {The tuned stringsmust remain free of respect to its tonal qualities and with respectfrets. The tuning'and the methods of use to its manner of use. Someofthese have been are entirely different and distinct, and the alludedto hereinabove. The objects of the to music for this instrument iswritten differ present invention are to overcome or lessen ently fromthat written for any other instru the chief of such objections byimproving the ment. i musical effectsof the instrument while ren- Themethod peculiar to the Hawaiian guidering'fits operation more easy, moredefinite tar comprises the application to the upper andin generalmoresatisfactory. 7'5 surfaces of the tonal strings of a metallicInthe'drawings Figurel is a front edge plate, ordinarily about an inchinheight, an view of my improved Hawaiian guitar with eighth'of an inch inthickness, and four inches portions broken away to show the continuainlength, with a rounded bottom 'edge,this tion and extent of the tentsbody, the fragplate usually being called the fsteel. Bemeiitaryfigure ofa player of the instrument 80 cause of its operation with such steel theb ing" also shown to illustrate how the novel Hawaiian guitar isfrequently referred to as guitaris firmly" seated on the operators legs;the steelguitar. i H Fig. 2 is almost a top view of the instrumentThe-'Hawaiian guitar isordinarily played of Fig. 1, the view beingslightly in perspec-,

by a' person normally seated, as in a chain tive; and Fig. 3'is afragmentary sectional 85 The'bodyfof the instrument is laid upon the'viewtakemthrough the body extension and rest surface provided by the topof the right key-board as on the line 33 of Fig. 1" viewed thigh, andthe'stringsare plucked, eitherJoy in' the direction of the arrows,showing how the finger tipsdirect or by a pointed instruthe steel isheldwith respectto' the strings.

40 mentthimbled upon one finger or more. The The main bodylO of theinstrument, the 90 variations in toneof the respective stringsare tailpiece 11, the strings asalwhole denomiproducedfby applying the steelcrosswise mated-12, the nut 13, the head 14, the tuning of the stringsat. varyingdistancesffrom the devices15, the fret board 16, the opening17 tail-piece,- the steel thus becoming in effect inthe sounding board,and the hand rest, 18

a fetimovable at will by the operator to demay be all'in accordance withwhat is well 95 finethe effective length of thestring or strings knownthe construction of the Hawaiian atkany'time being vibrated to produceamus guitar as heretofore .known. I prefer, how ieal tone or tonles. T t"f fi ever, that thef'finger buttons 'ofthe string- *Thr'ouglfitheus'ofthe 'steel'the tones pro tighteniagfllneans "l5. extend "above the headduced by the Hawaiian guitar are decidedly 14;"renderingthe' adjustmentofthe strings 1 0 more easy and while the instrument is held in playingposition. An important distlnction of the present device from priorpractice consists in an elongation of the hollow body through theprovision of an extension as 20 thereof. This hollow portion 20 extendspreferably to the nut 13. It is preferably materially wider than is thefinger-board and to the extent of the finger-board is normally beneathit. Fig. 3 shows that this extension 20 is rectangular in cross view.The sounding board 21 thus extends from end to end of the in strument,as does the bottom wall 22. The side walls of both the body and theextension are shownas being at right angles to the top and bottom walls,and there is an end wall 23 at the head. The construction thus providesa much elongated sound chamber formed of a relatively narrow extensionportion and a relatively wide body portion in the particular embodimentshown.

The side of the extension farther from the player is'closely adjacent toone longitudinally-extending edge of the finger-board, thus providingclearance on that side for the free manipulation of the steel when it istilted, as is necessary when'playing on the single string adjacentthereto and which is a peculiar and characteristic feature of Hawaiianguitar music.

Fig. 2 shows how the present instrument may lie fiat upon the upper legsof a person seated. Since it is thus provided from end to end with along and flat base it is supported at both ends firmly. Veryimportantly, when the operator applies the steel, which he does withrespect to individual strings or to several or all of them, thefinger-board end of the instrument firmly seated, and the player is notmet by a tendency of the instrument to tilt or move in lateraldirections due to his manipulations. The required technique may now beexercised free of inhibiting or counteracting influences, and by reasonof the firm seating of the instrument the player is able to develop abetter technique and to do better execution than without theimprovements in that respect. 7

Turning to Fig. 3 it will be noted that the left hand of the operatorholdingthe steel is resting on or near the corner at the juncture of thesounding board 21 and what may be termed the inner wall 25 of theextension 20. The steel has an appreciable weight and its handling intime becomes tiresome, especially to younger folks and femaleperformers. WVhile operating according to these improvements the handrests from time to time and sometimes slides along the rest surfaceprovided by the extension 20, as shown in Fig. 3. A better manipulationof the steel can also be had in some instances with the hand so resting,and certain technical effects can thereby be produced with morecertainty and more easily than where the whole arm is swinging freely.

Another important feature of the improvement is in the advantage ofbetter tonal effects in general. I have discovered that one reason forthe harshness and decidedl metallic character of the tones of the orinary Hawaiian guitar is in the hitherto relatively small reverberatoryair column or space defined by the body walls, considering the kind andcharacter of this instrument. I have found that by increasing the aircolumn with in the body in the longitudinal direction of the instrument,producing a relatively long air column, the tones are rendered deeperand richer and notably free of metallic harshness. In this respect Ihave thus produced a steel guitar having tones relatively rich inmusical qualities, tones having excellent timbre, resulting from theharmonious blending of overtones, and tones which, while fullycharacteristic of this instrument, are pleasing to the ear.

Note the nose-like projection 28 midway between the ends of theinstrument wherethe extension side 27 meets the side of the body. Thisprojection is a distance indicator for use of the player as his handmoves over the strings. It is at the twelfth tone marker on thefinger-board, which indicates the octave. It is highly important for theoperator to play this octave with certainty and exactness and in a rapidmovement. The projection mentioned serves to show him this place by thesense of touch.

The manufacture of be in accordance with stood in the art.

I contemplate as being included in these improvements all suchvariations, changes, departures and modifications from what is thusspecifically illustrated and described as are included in the scope ofthe accompanying claims.

I claim:

1. A Hawaiian guitar comprising side, top, bottom and end walls forminga wide hollow body and a narrow hollow extension thereof, a finger-boardhaving the transverse- 1y arranged tone-indicating markings of aHawaiian guitar secured on the top of said extension and directedlongitudinally therewith, there being means for holding and tighteningsix tonal strings extending sub stantially parallel. to each other abovethe finger-board, said means including a nut and a tail-piece adapted tohold said strings at a materially great distance from said fingerboardwhereby the strings will be maintained free of the finger-board underpressure by a playing steel upon the strings applied in the direction ofthe finger-board, one edge of said finger-board extending longitudinallyclosely adjacent to one side of said extension.

my new guitar may practices well under- 2. The combination of claim 1hereof in which the other side of said extension, and which is the onecloser to the players body when the instrument is normally in use, is ata substantial distance from that part of the finger-board immediatelyunder the tonal strings.

3. The combination of claim 1 hereof in which the top and bottom wallsof the body and extension are substantially parallel with each other andprovide a substantially flat surface on the bottom of the instrumentfrom end to end thereof.

4. The combination of claim 1 hereof in which there is adistance-indicating exten-c sion of the body at approximately thetwelfth tone marker on the finger-board and at the side of theinstrument body normally farther from the players body.

WILLIAM A. GREENFIELD.

